I had an anachronistic experience last night—I was to get a ride home from my parents, and we wound up leaving early because my uncle had to get to Indigo before it closed at 10 pm so he could get a book he needed.
My Uncle Stu is known in our family lore for, among other things, stealing his wife’s Kindle and appropriating it for his own, so my first question was ‘why aren’t you getting it there?’ It seems like the ‘hot new book I want to read RIGHT NOW’ situation would be tailor-made for the instant gratification world of the Kindle store, which as we know, has no fixed hours of operation and so will not require an urgent rush so you can get your shopping done by 10 pm.
Turns out Uncle Stu only carries the Kindle around with him in certain situations, namely weekends at his second home in the country, and when traveling. Um, wasn’t visiting us traveling. what with his Vancouver home being a five-hour plane ride away? No. Visiting us was just doing a little domestic hopping around. The Kindle does not come out unless he’s crossing oceans.
So there he found himself Kindle-less, wanting to read the new Giller winner and facing an urgent deadline. And I wound up cutting my visit with my parents short…
If only Uncle Stu had a phone he could read on. That, he would have had with him!
Reading anything longer than a blog post or email on on iPhone is basically untenable. The screen is too small for long form reading — at least I find it so.
@Greg, I agree with you now. But several years ago I did all my reading on my iPhone: books, blogs, everything. And now that I have a tablet I can’t believe I read on a phone for so long.
You do realize that many Android phones have much bigger screens than the iPhone right? The 4.7″ screen on mine provides a reasonable amount of text at a reasonable size. I still prefer an e-ink screen or a tablet, but its not like when I was trying to read on a 4″ or smaller screen.
My Kindle is like my AmEx card: I don’t leave home without it. I have a messenger bag to carry it around. Ok, maybe a middle age man with a messenger bag looks like a dork, but who cares.
My Kindle is for reading at home, or on the plane and later at the hotel when I’m traveling. My iPhone is for reading anywhere else because I always have it with me. I don’t have a problem reading on my phone. I do prefer my Kindle, but not enough to carry it around with me.
I think Uncle Stu is weird. I also think the aunt who actually let him get away with stealing her kindle is weird too. Maybe they deserve each other? Or maybe I’m just too attached to my ereader to understand that other people make different choices? Yes, that might be it.
I like reading books on my iPhone with Kindle app. It is always with me, text size is fine, I just have smaller pages. I can read and flip pages one handed. Amazing how much reading you can get done a few minutes at a time.
I do not buy a purse unless my Paperwhite fits in it. This is one time when carrying a purse everywhere is an advantage.